Cantonese grammar

Cantonese is an analytic language where, in a sentence, the arrangement of words is important to its meaning. A basic sentence is in form of SVO, i.e. a subject is followed by a verb then by an object, though this order is often violated because Cantonese is a Topic-prominent language. Unlike synthetic languages, seldom do words indicate time, gender and plural by inflection. Instead, these concepts are expressed through adverbs, aspect markers, and particles, or are deduced from the context. Different particles are added to a sentence to further specify its status or intonation.

A verb itself indicates no tense. The time can be explicitly shown with time-indicating adverbs. Certain exceptions exist, however, according to the pragmatic interpretation of a verb's meaning.Additionally, an optional aspect particle can be appended to a verb to indicate the state of an action. Appending interrogative or exclamative particles to a sentence turns a sentence into a question or shows the attitudes of the speaker.

Verbal Aspect

In contrast to many European languages, Cantonese verbs are marked for aspect rather than tense - that is, whether an action has begun, is ongoing, or has been completed. Tense - where an action occurs within time, ie past, present, future - is specified through the use of time adverbs. In addition, verbal complements may convey aspectual distinctions, indicating whether an action is just beginning, is continuing, or at completion, and also the effect of the verb on its object(s).

Aspect particles are treated as suffixes bound to the verb.

Demonstratives

Singular

The proximal demonstrative ("this"), is 呢 "ni1" / "nei1" or more frequently in fast speech, 依 "ji1" (+ measure word). For example:

:呢本書 "this book"

:依本書 "this book"

The distal demonstrative ("that") is 嗰 "go2" (+ measure word). For example:

:嗰本書 "that book"

Plural

For plural demonstratives, add 啲 "di1" before the noun:

:呢啲書 "these books"

:嗰啲書 "those books"

Possessives

For singular nouns, the word 嘅 "ge3" is roughly equivalent to English " 's":

:爸爸嘅屋企 "father's house"

Plural nouns take 啲 "di1":

:你啲動物 "your animals"

N.B.: 啲 is a very versatile word in Cantonese, besides pluralizing certain phrases, it can also mean "a little/few", e.g. 一啲 "jat1 di1" (a little), or 早啲 "earlier" (literally: early + (intensifier)).

Possessive pronouns (i.e. "mine", "his", "hers") are formed by adding 嘅/啲 after the pronoun.

:係佢嘅呀! "It's his!"
(呀 "aa3" is a particle used to end affirmative statements)

However, in the case where there's an implied plural noun, one does not say:

:係佢啲呀! "It's his!'.

For example:
:呢啲書係邊個嘅呀？ (Whose books are these?)
:係佢嘅呀! (It's his! [referring to his books] )

嘅呀 "ge3 aa3" is usually shortened in speech into one syllable, 嘎/㗎 "gaa3".

One could also say:
:係佢啲書呀！ (It's his books!)

Both of these are generic possessives.

For some special objects, possessives can be omitted, but not must. For example 屋企 mentioned above.

:爸爸屋企 "father('s) house"

For specific objects, measure words can be used as possessive as well:

:佢本書 "his book" (本 is the measure word)

Moreover, measure words in Cantonese can serve as definite articles. E.g. 本書唔見咗 "The book is lost". These two usages are not found in Mandarin Chinese.